Sharpfin Houndshark

About the Sharpfin Houndshark

The Sharpfin Houndshark is a rare species of ground shark found in a limited region of Ecuador and hence is poorly known and distribution is uncertain. It was originally described 40 years ago from a specimen captured at Isla de la Plata. The only other known records are the landings from gillnet fisheries, but they are rare. Small-scale artisanal fisheries land houndsharks as bycatch, which has led to a reduction in their numbers.

The Sharpfin Houndshark has an elongated and relatively robust body. The females usually grow up to 100 cm and the males up to 90 cm. They feed on shrimps, crabs, and bony fishes. They usually are found on the bottom in the water column position and near coral reefs, rocks, soft bottoms like mud, sand gravel, beach. They’re ovoviviparous but litter size is unknown.

In recent years, houndsharks have been found to decline in the bycatches. The shark’s extent of occurrence is less than 5,000 km². A calculation of catches and sampling of inshore fisheries would help us determine its exact extent of occurrence. The IUCN lists them as an endangered species

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